Too worked up to care, I snapped, “Oh, please, with you, it’s wham, bam, thank you, ma’am.”
“I don’t deny it. The women I’ve been with knew the score.” His stare held mine. “But that brainless twit was in a relationship with you, and he cheated—”
“Every damn time, in the different countries where he had overnight stopovers, until I found out…” I swallowed hard.
“Then he’s a sac-less loser. You’re better off without him. C’mon.” He grasped my hand and headed down the block to a side alley where he’d parked his truck. But feeling those firm, calloused fingers on mine, I forgot my irritation at Craig’s manipulation attempt. “Why are you being nice now, when you were a real pain in my ass earlier?”
Grim laughter. “I’m not nice, Charli. I’m never nice. I just don’t like anyone being taken advantage of.”
Ohhh. That threw me off my ire. “I could handle him.”
“Not from where I was standing.”
“I’m not talking about physical strength,” I said, keeping my attention on the pavement, so I didn’t have to look into those disturbing, intense eyes. The warmth from his grip was already causing enough havoc to my hyperaware nerves. I pulled my hand free and shifted my tote to my other shoulder. “I burned every one of his designer suits and drank some of his expensive liquor, and I think I flushed the rest down the toilet.”
“Good for you. If he comes after you again, I’ll knock his teeth down his throat.”
Jeepers. From his flat gaze, he meant it. “Why would you take on my battles when you hardly know me? Besides, you can’t get in another fight, or so I heard.”
A fleeting smile graced those sensual lips. “Keeping tabs on me, Blue? Good to know.” Before I opened my mouth, his expression turned forbidding. “If it was a woman, a child, anyone defenseless, and some scum strong-armed or abused them, I would do the same in a heartbeat.”
At his words, the surge of annoyance at the stupid name he persisted in calling me faded a little. Despite his wild side and player image, War, I realized, had a protective streak a mile wide.
WAR
Twice in one day, I found myself driving to Charli’s home, not that I minded. The streetlights cast dull circles of light on the sidewalk in the quiet road, the dots tapering off into the distance as I slowed outside the mansion.
Charli undid her seat belt and faced me.
I put the Escalade into park, waited.
“Did you see Instagram?” she demanded, back to her sparring self.
“I don’t have any social media accounts.” She frowned at that. “Don’t care for them. Why, what’s there?” I had an idea.
“Seriously? After what happened today, you ask me that?” Her eyebrows tipped together. She removed her cell from her bag, swiped through it, stabbed something with a finger, then she stuck her phone in my face, revealing the snapshot of me holding her outside the Cheetah’s training facilities. “I’m your damn girlfriend, yourforever girl—Jesus Christ!” She flopped back in her seat. “Now, everyone thinks I am. You have to fix this.”
“Why? Are you seeing anyone?” I asked, not caring for the constriction in my gut that she could be. “Is it why you’re throwing a tantrum?”
“I am not throwing a tantrum,” she grumbled. “My mother. She sees this, she’s either going to go ape-shit crazy or drag you into my life.”
Yeah, I doubted the latter very much. I shrugged, finding I could breathe easier.
She sat up, looking like a coiled spring about to snap. “So, you won’t fix this, then?”
If glares could kill, she would have skewered me many times over by now.
“Why are you so pissed,” I countered. “Most girls would jump at the chance for this to be real and take advantage of the situation.”
“I. Am. Not. Most. Girls!” She punctuated each word through gritted teeth. How she managed that, I had no idea. “I’m not interested in relationships. Jesus! I can’t even seem to get rid of the one I had and don’t want, and the jerk somehow tracked me to the bar—oh, shit!” Her eyes widened. “The damn photo! It must be why Craig found me and is on my backside again. Dammit!”
“You shouldn’t cuss like some drunk, Blue,” I murmured, stifling a smile at her crankiness.
A growl broke free—the girl was ace at it—then she leaned into me. I expected another telling off up close—
She kissed me.
On the mouth.
